Parliament’s Vice Speaker Mikheil Machavariani has become new secretary general of the ruling National Movement party, replacing MP Zurab Melikishvili, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for finance and budgetary issues, who has held the post for last four years.

The National Movement is chaired by President Saakashvili, who said in his state of the nation address in the Parliament last month that the ruling party had a resource to rule Georgia “for many more years.”